FALMOUTH, Trelawny – What began as an unfinished construction project altered by an extreme hurricane has quickly become one of Jamaica’s most beloved new tourist destinations. The 10-foot bronze statue of sprinting legend Usain Bolt, mounted on a newly redesigned fountain at Falmouth’s historic Water Square, has drawn a continuous stream of international visitors eager to snap photos with the monument honoring the world’s fastest man.
The site, located just steps from Falmouth’s historic cruise port, has become a must-see stop for thousands of passengers who disembark from large cruise ships each week. During a recent visit to the popular attraction, Jamaica Observer spoke with tourists and local guides about the statue’s unexpected rise to fame, and got the latest update on plans for its official dedication.
Andy, an excited visitor from New York, called the stop a highlight of his Jamaican trip. “It is great! Fantastic! I just found out that the statue is here. My tour guide brought me here and I just had to take pictures with it,” he said.
Local tour guide Dillion Wilmot explained that Bolt’s global fame makes the statue a draw for nearly every cruise group that comes to Falmouth. “A lot of people come off the boat and they do love to come and take pictures at the statue of Usain Bolt because everyone has heard about him. Most haven’t seen the statue yet, and many have never visited Water Square before. When they come off the ship, they love to see these historical sites and learn about the country’s great people,” Wilmot said, adding that visitors also enjoy learning the deep history of the square itself.
Water Square holds major historical significance: it was home to one of the earliest piped water systems in the Western Hemisphere, constructed all the way back in 1798. The original fountain on the site dates to 1805, and has been updated and redesigned multiple times in the centuries since.
Elliot, a tourist from Idaho who was visiting with a group of American travelers, said the statue lets visitors connect with the national pride Jamaicans have for their most iconic athlete. “I like it because we saw Bolt on television and the way his people greeted him when he came home, it was a big excitement for his country. He’s special,” Elliot said.
The path to the statue’s current popularity was an unplanned one. The Jamaica Defence Force and Trelawny Municipal Corporation partnered to build the new fountain and install Bolt’s statue, but the site remained closed to the public ahead of its planned official unveiling. That changed last October, when Category 5 Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica with maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour. The storm ripped away the protective covering that hid the statue from public view, unexpectedly revealing it to the world months ahead of schedule.
Since that accidental unveiling, visitors have flocked to the site nonstop, turning it into one of the parish’s top tourist attractions. Officials now say an official dedication ceremony will be held in the near future, after months of delays. The event was originally planned for last Christmas, but had to be pushed back due to supply chain issues that slowed work on the redesigned fountain.
Olivia “Babsy” Grange, Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sports, confirmed that the fountain and statue are now fully complete, and officials are just finalizing a new date for the dedication. “I have to speak with the mayor of Falmouth. We had planned to do it at Christmas but we didn’t do it at Christmas. So now we have to select an appropriate date. But it’s ready,” Grange said, noting that the supply delay stemmed from the time it took to source custom parts for the redesigned fountain.
Falmouth Mayor C Junior Gager, who also chairs the Trelawny Municipal Corporation, said the public will be notified of the dedication date as soon as it is finalized with Grange’s team. Once fully operational, the fountain will feature eight water jets that spray into the air above the base of the statue. Two new storyboards will also be installed at the site: one detailing the life and career of Bolt, who was born in Trelawny’s Sherwood Content community, and another highlighting the long history of Water Square itself.
The redesigned fountain will also include programmable colored lighting that will be used to mark national and cultural holidays, including Emancipation Day and Christmas Day. Grange confirmed that all infrastructure for the lighting feature is already in place. “They haven’t turned on the lights full time yet but the fountain is all wired and everything. When we turn the water on it’s going to be lit. It’s complete, it’s ready,” she said.
Bolt, a retired sprinter widely regarded as the greatest sprinter in sports history, still holds the world records in the men’s 100-meter and 200-meter sprints, as well as the 4×100-meter relay. Over his legendary career, he won eight Olympic gold medals and 11 World Championships gold medals, cementing his status as a global sporting icon and a source of immense national pride for Jamaica.